[s-cars] NE Regional //S Fest - summary & thanks (long)

[Paul Krasusky]

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Ah, fine morning to all-

Yep, more WOB regarding //S Fest, but I've had many who could not attend ask
for all the 'details'.

I'm going to kill 2 birds with one stone here...  details and thank-yous,
so....

Warning:  LONG

First off, the important stuff.  A most sincere THANK YOU to ALL of those
involved in helping coordinate such a great bunch of extraordinary GIFTS for
my wife, the baby, and me.  Simply a high, high-class gesture, indeed.  My
wife arrived home @ 11:00, and we opened the rest of the presents.  I feel
so utterly terrible that we did not open the last gifts (we left them for my
wife to open) in front of everyone!  My wife had babysitting duty for my
brother's kid, she only stayed at the party until 1:00.  Had I known the
significance of the gifts I would have had her there.  I know what it's like
giving a gift to someone...  most of the fun is watching them open it and
seeing the reaction.

Actually, it probably was better that everyone DIDN'T see us open them.

My reaction?  I was simply floored.  Floored.  Beyond words.  I actually
welled up a bit.  Such a cool thing for all to do.  I was speechless.  And
to hear this has been conspired behind my back for so long with so many
people!  It's amazing no one spilled the beans!  HA!

For those not there, Bob Rossato organized many of the group and imported me
a grey market Audi for our kid, once it pops out.  Literally, a German
import.  Not sure which model though, heh heh.  It's one of them scooters,
but is one of the nicest I've seen.  Silver, decals, real grille, tail
lights.  Awesome.  My kid's off to a great start.

The later presents were a pair of gorgeous baby blankets a lister's (?) wife
made for us, thanks Dan Simoes for planning that.  Those, and a friggin'
Britax baby car seat!!!!!!!!  Wow!  AWESOME!  We actually registered @
Babies R Us for a Britax!  Too funny, too funny.  But the best part is they
only offered a pair of ugly plaid prints.  This one had a super cool bear
theme and is PERFECT!  My wife was so, so utterly pleased.  This was great,
as it offered her an opportunity to see how high a caliber and quality the
people on the list really are.  She finally "gets it".  Well, sort of!...

<<<<<<<<<<OK enough sappiness>>>>>>>>>>>

CT hasn't had rain in months.  It drizzled most of the day but that did not
even have the slightest impact on the event!  Somehow, we weren't at all
wet.  Everything went off without hitch, and the kids braved the pool.
Attendance was exactly perfect, I couldn't have expected better.  While I
haven't tallied everything, my 'rough count' was somewheres around 20-22 //S
cars, a handful of 200TQ & TQA's, a coupe GT and UrQuattro, and another 25
or so 'other' cars.  I think about 45 cars in all, well, at least at the
moment in time I counted.  And 'maybe' about 75 or more people!  Wow!  Great
that many brought along the whole gang, even an infant or 2!

Highlights included caraaaaaaaaaazy Bob Pastore and my wholesaler Brian
Werstak swapping out different ECU's, in the drizzle, in the road, and doing
WOT runs up the street.  Back to back to back to back.  Pretty funny.  Heh,
and Bob's Avant was like the village hoar, everyone seemed to get a burn in
it.  And all wanted to see his H2O kit that's nearing completion.  Heh, his
young kids kept begging for rides (and getting them!) in the ///M3, F355,
and TR3, which was hilarious...   world beware when they get older!  The
F355 left for the evening with wondrousness.  Side stepping the clutch @ 4k
up my wet street was beyond description.  We were left with our jaws
hanging...

Igor's car seemed to gather a crowd.  Its gorgeous.  Especially the GPS and
air / fuel meter installs!  But the car is shrouded in mysteriousness that
he is utterly elusive about...  is he a secret agent?  Shall we call you
"Mr. Bond" hereforth?

I thought //S cars came in more colors!  First batch that arrived were all
black.  The next handful were all emerald.  Then came a cluster of pearls.
That was so bizarre.  And that's IT!  3 colors?  Heh, well, ONE red one,
thanks Posto for breaking  the trend.  We WERE going to paint yours black,
but...

Tom Pollack managed to have a bunch of sweeeeeeeeet commemorative hats made
for the event.  Funniest was his kid walking around peddling them.  He's got
a great career in sales ahead of him!  Thanks Tom!

Dan S. had some of his Audifans shirts for sale, nice touch.  And, so cool,
Thomson Smith (who regretfully cancelled a few days prior) priority-mailed
me a package of some of his sweet Lithographs to sell, along with a stack of
stickers and a Audi note pads.  THANKS to each of you for your
thoughtfulness!

Most stayed until dusk, and the day went into the early morning for good
group of us...  Dave Freed, Matt Russell, Joe Pizzomenti all camped out.
All the food went, we were licking the dishes by midnight, still flipping
burgers and dogs, and most of the Warsteiner and nearly all the Sierra
Nevada IPA is gone (plenty left for me for the week, it's STILL on ice!).

We caravaned Sunday morning to the autocross, the ride there was, er, silly.
Rossato met us there in his Corrado SLC, as did a neu //S4 friend of mine.
At the event was a non-lister in his modded //S4.  Quite the Audi invasion.
Bob hadn't run in 8 years, Dave has run once, and the rest of the clan were
newbie wetnecks, so they ran in the novice class.  We got in the scheduled 5
runs on a perfect sunny day.  Man did they all drive their hearts out.
Kudos on improving your times and running clean and consistent.

Fortunately, the course was REALLY catered to bigger cars, and was a very
fast set up.  My first experience in AWD, I flogged the snot out of her.
Saying I was impressed with it is an understatement.  Dollar runs were
offered at the end.  HA!  You should have seen these fools doing one after
another after another.  Like kids needing Ritalin!  Pizzo did SIX!!!!
That's 11 runs!  Awesome.  Pizzo came home with me after to clean up the
party, THANKS!  For this, I paid him with hotdogs...  he snarfed back like,
seven.  HA!

Thanks to all that brought food, etc., and to those who made kind donations.
Very generous.  I feel terrible, I forgot to give proper THANKS to Ray
Tomlinson, he was our beermaster for the event.  Nice job, THANK YOU for
your effort, as well as helping set up Friday night.  And a another thanks
to Jim Norris (500E), he and I have been hashing out the parking plan, the
flow of the party, etc., for weeks.  Also, a thanks to Rich Assarabowski for
trying to get a handle on attendance / photos, and for your ground guiding
while I parked.

I could NOT have done this event without all of the unsolicited and
unconditional help from each of you.

My only regret is that I didn't get to spend much time talking with most
you, being the host does have it's drawbacks.  Would like to have gotten to
know many of you better.  Oh well, have to hit another event together then,
eh?  Heh heh...

Well, see you all on the list for the time being.  I'm told there will be a
series of pictures from the day posted to the //S Car sight (thanks Darin!
I guess if you all have pics, email them to Darin for posting).

Thanks so much all for coming!

Most Sincerely,

Paul & Jennifer Krasusky
CT
'95 //S6
'58 TR3A
'02 //S Buggy